Tom Neel's Blog

There’s Only One Reason To Raise Your Prices

Because you can! Not because you should. Your market dictates your prices, not you. So what do I mean by - because you can? It means because you can and your art will still sell. Not just because you feel like it. You may feel like buying a new car too, and maybe you can technically obtain it through financing. But that doesn’t mean you should, or that you can really afford it, does it?

The because you can I’m talking about has confidence based on real evidence. If you have 10 paintings, half at $500. And half at $800. And all of them sell in 30 days, trust me, you can raise your prices. But if you take the same scenario, 30 days pass and you’ve sold two, the market has not dictated a real reason to raise your prices.

If you can paint one painting a week, and it sells at $1,000 (or whatever), as fast as you complete each one, well then, your prices are too low and you can and should raise them. But using the same formula, you paint one a week and haven’t sold one in 5 months, your prices are too high. So while you technically CAN raise your prices, you sure as hell shouldn’t!

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I hear of prolific artists that produce a ton of work and have hundreds of paintings lying around. My head would explode if I had a hundred paintings in my inventory, much less way more as some do.

So, raise your prices when you really can because the market demand you enjoy, will still be there after you’ve raised your prices, and go up slow because it’s not good to come back down.